This archive report was first published on 8 July 2021.
On July 8, 2021, Court of Appeal Judge Jessie Lessit delivered a ruling that acquitted serial killer Philip Onyancha of murder charges.
The acquittal came after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) failed to provide sufficient evidence to implicate Onyancha in the murder of a woman named Jackline in May 2008 in Nairobi's CBD.
Justice Lessit pointed out oversights in the nature of the evidence provided to the court, placing some responsibility on the investigating police officers.
"All these are disheartening omissions the ones being failure to investigate a stain on the deceased door captured by the crime scene investigator, why would the police not follow this line of investigation?" Justice Lessit observed.
Onyancha had previously confessed to committing 19 murders over a span of two years and had shown the police where he had disposed of the bodies.
He had also revealed that he had been repeatedly molested as a minor by a worker in their family home, an occurrence which he claimed had left him traumatized.
Onyancha named Tobias Arad and Douglas Obiero as his co-accused, however, denying the murder of a 9-year-old boy Anthony Muiruri which had been pinned on the trio.
